Why North Kingstown Needs to Protect its Water Supply and How You Can Help ~ September 30, 2010

On September 30, the North Kingstown Groundwater Committee, the NK Water Department and the NK Economic Development Committee are hosting a talk on, “Why North Kingstown Needs to Protect its Water Supply and How You Can Help”.  The talk will take place at the NK Free Library Meeting Room from 6:30 to 8:20 pm.  The talk is free and the public is cordially invited.

Many citizens of North Kingstown are aware that summer water use in the Town skyrockets in the droughty summer months of July and August.  They may also be aware that such high water use can endanger the Town’s pumps and other equipment, may trigger a ban on outdoor watering, may cause a boil-water notice, and that such high water use may also lower water pressure in the pipes to the point where extinguishing a fire, should there be one, is difficult.

Such high water use is also putting the Town’s Post Road Corridor Plan in jeopardy and if not corrected, cause economic development to falter.  The consensus is that the quickest way to solve this problem of summer water overuse, if not necessarily a permanent one, is to move away from every-other-day watering to a less liberal watering schedule for the next several years.  At that point different solutions may present themselves.

On September 30, URI Professor Anne Veeger, URI Chair of the Department of Geosciences and a hydrologist, and Mike Sullivan, Director of the Department of Environmental Management, will talk to attendees about outdoor water use in North Kingstown, how the extent of that outdoor use is harming our economic development, possibly jeopardizing our ability to pump sufficient water to meet demand and endangering the health of our streams, ponds and rivers and the wildlife they support.      

The speakers will also provide an overview of the water resources in the town and to help the public understand that there are limits to the water supply and why. Questions will be welcome.
Please mark September 30 on your calendar and attend this event to see how you   can help protect our water supply.

For questions please call Harriet Powell, Chair, NK Groundwater Committee at 294-4737.